Sunday, June 20, 2010

I Resign from Republican Liberty Caucus

I have concluded that the Republican Liberty Caucus is but one more corrupt Republican organization. In a state where the Republican Party is generally corrupt this does not come as a surprise.

I have not heard a single RLC member or candidate come up with a coherent scheme to reduce government in New York. Carl Svensson personally told me that he did not believe that it was possible for a viable candidate in New York to run on a platform of budget cutting because of the opposition of public unions. In a year when the public has become energized via the Tea Parties, New York's RLC has contributed nothing, zero, to the Tea Party movement. When I proposed that the RLC back a candidate who offers $10 million to run on a platform of budget cutting, the RLC cannot figure out how to support such a candidate.

Rather, members indicate that supporting a budget cutting candidate will hurt their own chances for miniscule public offices, and that is more important to them than reducing government in New York.

I have not heard of a single RLC candidate to run on a budget cutting platform whereby he or she has advocated a 20% or greater budget cut. When a candidate appears who says that he favors a 20% budget cut, the RLC refuses to endorse him.

I think we can we conclude that the RLC is not an organization that has a thing to contribute to reducing the size and corruption in government in New York.

5 comments:

Mitchell, it is an eternal problem for the RLC that we have to try to preserve our principles while working within a system in which corruption and lack of principles are the standard.

For some time I disassociated myself from the Texas RLC because it seemed to be dominated by birchers and extremists and associated only with the national RLC which was more libertarian-leaning.

But ultimately I concluded that it was better to engage with people I had differences with and to try to persuade them, even if it was a slow and frustrating process than to stay above the fray accomplishing too little on the vital level of local and state politics.

In New York it's the unions. Here in Texas it's the social conservatives. But these are challenges which can be overcome. But it's not going to happen in an instant and if you get frustrated and give up, where do you have to go? Who in New York politics has any chance of accomplishing more of what you seek to accomplish than the RLC? Even falling short of your goals they will still do better than ahy of the alternatives.

Dave--You may be right, but there seems to be little point because the economic incentives for ultimate decline in New York are apparently too powerful to resist. It may be more sensible to allow economic forces to run their course and when the state collapses try to influence the cataclysmic change that may occur. I wish this way of thinking were not popping into my mind, but I just don't see any future for the GOP here in New York. Hopefully, I'm wrong.

Vakeraj: I am just reacting to the NY State group. I don't think the other states are the same. Part of the problem here is the overwhelming predominance of state employees. In my town over 50% of the population works for the state or for New York City (which owns a reservoir here). State-wide, many, many people are leaving the state as the tax burden has become enormous and jobs have fled. I don't think the same problems exist elsewhere, as Dave points out about Texas above. I took out the reference to the national group. That isn't fair.

Let us assume that libertarians gain a majority in both houses of Congress. What can possibly be accomplished, besides for blocking further progressive programs? Democrats surely will filibuster any attempts to erase their actions.

The real solution is to let the Supreme Court handle the mismanagement via interpretation of the constitution. As long as Republicans control the presidency and the Senate, another conservative justice may be appointed to the bench. The new conservative majority will then be capable of reviving the pre-1937 decisions that always declared the "New Deal" legislation unconstitutional. Such an action would accomplish your goal of ridding this country of its socialist programs, all of them.

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Mitchell Langbert

About Me

I have researched and written about employee benefit issues and in my previous life was a corporate benefits administrator. I am currently associate professor of business at Brooklyn College. I hold a Ph.D. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, an MBA from UCLA and an AB from Sarah Lawrence College. I am working on a project involving public policy. I blog on academic and political topics.